Private Postal Center Clerk Faces Grand Theft Charges : Crime: Employee of a Buena Park business confessed to bilking customers out of cash and merchandise and stealing bank and credit cards, police say.

BUENA PARK —  A private postal center clerk has confessed to bilking dozens of customers out of thousands of dollars in merchandise and cash and stealing bank and credit cards from rented mailboxes, police said.

Harold Scott Mulvihill, 25, of Anaheim was in custody Monday in the James A. Musik Branch Jail in El Toro, Buena Park Police Sgt. Terry Branum said.

He faces arraignment Wednesday in North County Municipal Court in Fullerton on an unspecified number of counts of grand theft in connection with an 11-month scam operation out of the Buena Park Mail Postal Service, a private business where he worked.

The owner of the business, William Mathwig, was not implicated in the alleged scam, Branum said.

“If I had any idea that this was going on, he wouldn’t have been here at all,” Mathwig said, adding that he worked throughout the day Monday to locate victims. “I just want to get this thing resolved right now.”

Mathwig said he does not believe that his company is financially liable for the alleged thefts and has made no plans to reimburse the victims, thought to number at least 25.

Branum said an investigation into the purported scam began several weeks ago in response to complaints by customers that they were getting a “big runaround” when they inquired about lost packages sent through United Parcel Service.

Investigators arrested Mulvihill last Thursday and held him in custody on a number of outstanding misdemeanor warrants until prosecutors could file a case against him, Branum said.

Mulvihill could not be reached for comment Monday, and authorities said they were not certain who would be representing him in court.

Branum said, however, that “he pretty much copped to the whole thing.”

Like other private postal centers, Buena Park Mail Postal Service rents post office boxes to customers and also acts as a middleman in routing special deliveries through national carriers. The Buena Park firm deals exclusively with UPS on such deliveries.

Mulvihill reportedly told detectives that beginning in November, while working alone at the store, he accepted insured packages from customers intended for UPS shipment. But instead of shipping off the packages, he took them into a back room, opened them up and inspected the contents, officials alleged.

Police searching Mulvihill’s home after his arrest confiscated about $7,000 in merchandise they believe was stolen from the packages or purchased with stolen money. Items included wicker furniture, jewelry, cassettes, beef jerky, combat boots, clothing, a radio, an electric keyboard and a sleeping bag. They also confiscated $500 in cash.

Branum said Mulvihill admitted to stealing some of the items because he “was trying to impress his friends with gifts. . . . If it was something he liked or wanted to give to friends, he just kept it.”

Days or weeks later, when the customers learned that their packages never made it to their destinations, they returned to the postal center and filed claims for the lost merchandise, Branum said.

Mulvihill, whose duties included processing mail, also kept his eye out for reimbursement checks made out to the customers from UPS, police said. He allegedly intercepted checks ranging from $100 to $500 and then endorsed them to himself and cashed them, police said.

In addition, Branum said Mulvihill also admitted to stealing credit cards and automated teller machine cards via the mail and using them to charge merchandise and get cash, ranging from $200 to $300 for each transaction.

Before arresting Mulvihill, police ran a background check on him and discovered that he had several outstanding warrants on traffic, petty theft and misdemeanor charges dating back to 1987, Branum said.

Mulvihill appeared in Municipal Court in Westminster on Monday on the outstanding misdemeanor warrants, which total more than $7,000 in fines, Branum said.

Customers who believe that they have been victimized at the postal center are asked to call Buena Park Police Detective Steve Lang at (714) 521-9352, Ext. 132, from noon to 8 p.m., Branum said.